A Blog for Mystery Lovers

Posts tagged ‘doc ford’

“Deep Shadow” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2010) is an exciting book in the Doc Ford series and would make a dynamite movie. Doc and his friends are diving in a remote Florida lake, hoping to find the old wreckage of an airplane which may be filled with gold from the Cuban national treasury. Two of the divers are trapped when there is an underwater cave collapse, and Doc must find a way to save them; but to complicate matters, two dangerous ex-cons on the run are waiting on shore, intent on getting the gold for themselves.

The book contains extensive descriptions of cave-diving, and the problem I had reading it was that I do not know the meaning of some of the jargon used for the diving equipment and the underwater structures, so I had some difficulty picturing the scene in a lot of cases. That’s why I think it would translate well to a movie, the visual being easier to understand for someone like me.

Also, the author expounds at great length on the thought processes and feelings of the two men trapped underwater who are convinced they are about to die. This is probably a fine psychological study and did seem to ring true, but it is not what I expect to read when I choose a mystery. So I found myself skimming through a lot of the material, just wanting to pick up the action thread rather than all this description, as the story really is a good one, and I was anxious to get on with it.